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11+ Werken 294 Leden 4 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

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Werken van Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

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Geboortedatum
1978
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
UK
Opleiding
University of Sussex
Beroepen
journalist
author
filmmaker
scholar
Prijzen en onderscheidingen
Premio Napoli (2003)
Routledge-GCPS Essay Prize (2010)
Project Censored Award (2014, 2015)
Korte biografie
Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is an award-winning 15-year investigative journalist, international security scholar, bestselling author, and film-maker.

He is the creator of INSURGEintelligence, a crowdfunded public interest investigative journalism project, ‘System Shift’ columnist at VICE, and a weekly columnist at Middle East Eye. He is International Editor at The Canary. Previously, Nafeez wrote The Guardian’s ‘Earth insight’ blog.

His work has been published in The Guardian, VICE, Independent on Sunday, The Independent, The Scotsman, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Quartz, The New Statesman, Prospect, Le Monde diplomatique, Raw Story, New Internationalist, Huffington Post UK, Al-Arabiya English, AlterNet, The Ecologist, and Asia Times, among other places.

Exclusive stories broken by Nafeez via INSURGEintelligence have been covered by USA Today, Global Post, The Guardian, The Independent, Washington Post, The Metro, The Week, News Corp’s news.com.au, Discovery News, Channel 4 News, Forbes, Columbia Journalism Review, Gigaom, FutureZone, etc. etc.

In 2015, Nafeez won the Project Censored Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for his Guardian story on the energy politics of the Ukraine crisis. The previous year he won another Project Censored Award, known popularly as the ‘Alternative Pulitzer’, for his Guardian article on climate-induced food crises and civil unrest.

In 2010, Nafeez won the Routledge-GCPS Essay Prize for his academic paper on the ‘Crisis of Civilisation’ published in the journal Global Change, Peace and Security. He also won the Premio Napoli (Naples Prize) in 2003, Italy’s most prestigious literary award created by decree of the President of the Republic.

Nafeez has twice been featured in the Evening Standard’s ‘Top 1,000’ list of most influential people in London, in 2014 and 2015.

Nafeez is the author of A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (2010), and the scifi thriller novel ZERO POINT, among other books. His work on the root causes and covert operations linked to international terrorism officially contributed to the 9/11 Commission and the 7/7 Coroner’s Inquest.

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Zero Point by Nafeez Ahmed is an action adventure “spy” novel in a modern format. Ahmed is an investigative journalist and an international security scholar. He writes for The Guardian on geopolitics in his “Earth Insight” column. He also taught international politics, contemporary history, empire, and globalization at the University of Sussex. He holds a PhD in International Relations and an MA in Contemporary War and Peace Studies.

Zero Point was a book I knew I would like from the start. I share the same educational background with the author and the book appears to be a modern twist on the books I used to read back in the Marines. Back then it was the US or Great Britain against the Soviets. Usually, there was a spy, diplomat, or military service man thrown into an international disaster in the making. The situation was not only bigger than anything he trained for but bigger than anything he could imagine. The demise of the Soviet Union and a lacking a credible enemy this type of novel disappeared. It tried making a few comebacks, but never caught on, at least until now.

Ahmed creates a credible enemy in the near future Great Britain. What makes this unique is that the players remain basically the same as they are at the present. There is no unified Jihad movement or unstable Middle East Leader, although there have been four Gulf wars. The Mid East is still a hot spot because of the United State's thirst for oil and the realization that once you remove the old power structure of a closed society and open it to democracy, in one fell swoop, it is going to fail.

Zero Point creates a convincing near future world scenario. The reader can be pulled into a believable setting. David Ariel, a veteran of the fourth Gulf War, left the military for reasons of conscience and finds himself working a protection detail for the Prime Minister as a civilian cop in Specialist Protection, SO1. In route to a meeting with the Iranian ambassador, Prime Minister Carson’s Motorcade is attacked and destroyed. Ariel survives, only to find out that it looks like he will be blamed for the disaster--Not for dereliction of duty, but as a plotter. He escapes custody and tries not only to clear his name but find those responsible.

This is where the novel requires the suspension of disbelief. Alliances are made. technology is discovered. Covert groups rise. This after all is an action/spy novel and the key to making the unbelievable believable is in the way the story is told. Ahmed introduces new information in a way that exposes it in a methodical process. The reader finds himself in the frog pot where the water is being warmed a degree at a time and by the time the reader realizes that something is amiss, the water is boiling.

Zero Point is an action packed novel filled with twists and turns and technology that will hold any Cold War spy novel fan’s interest. Ahmed pulls together every spy novel “cliche” and molds it into the post Cold War world; he even creates some new ones. The escalation of events in the novel prevents me from disclosing much more information than I already have. Events and items build upon each in Zero Point. Zero Point is a fast and furious novel that will bring back many readers who missed the good old days of the Cold War.
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Gemarkeerd
evil_cyclist | 1 andere bespreking | Mar 16, 2020 |
*Book source ~ A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Army veteran David Ariel left killing behind and is working on the police specialist protection squad when Prime Minister Carson is assassinated on his shift. Ariel thought things were bad when the Prime Minister’s car blew up, but as time goes by things get stranger and stranger still. Each step he takes to uncover whatever is going on only sucks him deeper into a web of covert operations the likes of which have never seen the light of day. Battling unknown enemies and his own PTSD, Ariel races against time to stop a catastrophic event that could set off World War III.

Wow! Be sure to strap in before starting this book because it surges out of the starting gate in the first chapter and doesn’t let up until the end. Set in the near future of 2015, this story is one exhilarating ride. It’s definitely a thriller with fast action and a race against time theme. Then it’s sci-fi with technology not yet seen today. It also covers the military with specialists, military bases, weaponry and Ariel’s own connections. Finally it’s political with different offices trying to do the best they can in an emergency situation and not getting much done because of bureaucracy and red tape. One hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. Plus, it doesn’t help that it appears every level of government has been compromised by the enemy and they have no clue.

On the whole I absolutely loved this book. I was on the edge of my seat and I nearly couldn’t turn the pages fast enough as my eyes raced to see what was next. Told from several POVs I really got a decent overall view of what was going on, but the majority of the story is told from Ariel’s POV and he is a fantastic hero. Far from perfect and doing the best he can in an impossible situation, I love following him around as he figures shit out. The writing is out of this world. In addition, I have absolutely no head for the sciences and even the technical bullshit was fairly easy to follow though I wouldn’t trust myself if I had to take a quiz on the subjects put forth.

My three biggest complaints for this book are these: 1. the twists and turns were nearly too twisty and turny. I got a headache trying to keep up. 2. The situations Ariel kept walking into were getting to be a bit much. I just wanted to give the guy a break even if it was just a little one. 3. The ending. One word: cliffhanger. Yeah, I am not a fan of cliffhangers and I felt this particular spot should have been in the next book and the ending dialed back a bit to just after the event in Trafalgar Square. I think the ending wouldn’t have been quite so jarring that way, but then again, that’s just my opinion.

All-in-all I loved this book and will most definitely be watching for book 2.
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Gemarkeerd
AVoraciousReader | 1 andere bespreking | Sep 18, 2014 |
This book is an expose on the American 'War Against Terror'. Focusing on what was known about the run up to the attack on the World Trade Centre and then on who stood to gain by the aftermath, this is a powerful indictment of the US Government.The overall conclusion of the book, that the attack on the WTC was known about, but no attempt was made to stop it is difficult to swallow, but the aftermath, with the special treatment that the Saudis associated with Osama Bin Laden is easier to understand.So was it all a conspiracy? I don't know, but this book is well written, easy to read and damning of many of those involved.… (meer)
 
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fieldri1 | 1 andere bespreking | May 8, 2009 |
This book proves everything you already knew but didn't want to hear: 9/11 only happened because Bush and Cheney were in charge. It also explains other great lies such as Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin, the Lusitania,... Nobody is stupid enough to attack the mightiest nation in the world, so if they want to go to war (and we all know how much they love war) they must attack themselves. Yet, most people remain ignorant of this fact. Even the other guy who wrote a review of this book (I gess he is American) didn't want to believe it. That's a shame.… (meer)
½
 
Gemarkeerd
hopper00 | 1 andere bespreking | Nov 20, 2008 |

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Werken
11
Ook door
1
Leden
294
Populariteit
#79,674
Waardering
3.8
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4
ISBNs
23
Talen
4
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